An anti-war, anti-neo-conservative blog to counter the lies of those who wish to condemn us to perpetual conflict. All this, plus horse-racing, football, books, films, television, and plenty of other topics too....
My new book 'Stranger than Fiction', a biography of Edgar Wallace, is available here:
http://www.thehistorypress.co.uk/index.php/biography-books/stranger-than-fiction-25294.html and here:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Stranger-than-Fiction-Wallace-Created/dp/0752498827

Friday, July 24, 2009

How Labour could still win the 2010 General Election

Even after the disastrous by-election result at Norwich North, Labour could still win the next General Election. IF they make a clean break with neoliberalism and adopt unashamedly populist, anti-globalist left-wing policies.

Here's 10 things they'd have to do:

1. Renationalise the railways, public transport and public utilities.2. Double old-age pensions and introduce free care for the elderly.3. Reintroduce a staunchly progressive taxation system with a new top rate of 80%- not 50%- on people earning over £200,000. 4. Pursue a full employment economic policy.5. Announce a referendum on Britain's continued membership of the EU and NATO.6. Listen to genuine public concern over large-scale immigration.7. Use British troops purely for the 'Defence of the Realm' and jettison the catastrophic policy of 'liberal interventionism'. 8. Reverse the disastrous ban on smoking in public places which has destroyed social life and seen thousands of pubs, bingo halls and social clubs close.9. Announce the end to the creeping privatisation of the NHS, and bring back dentistry into the NHS fold. 10. Appoint a brilliant anti-war left-wing blogger to be the new leader of the party. (No, I'm not being big-headed, I'm referring to the likes of Anna, Charlie,Ken , Olching and the others in the links section on the right). They'd surely do a better job in getting support for Labour than Gordon Brown.

Of course, there's not a cat in hell's chance of any of the above policies being adopted by Labour, a party which, despite its name, is in hock to Kapital. Which means that the only thing the party can look forward to is its total destruction.

9 comments:

I would agree with most of them except lifting the smoking ban. That proposal seems a bit out of left field. Also, an 80% top tax rate is really high. Why not a national property tax that taxes people on accumulated wealth? That way, people who have a lot of wealth but report little income would actually pay what they should, and people who spend all their money just for basic necessities and have no wealth would pay very little. That is how counties tax in the US and it is much fairer than income tax or consumption taxes.

11. Introduce a media monopolies bill.12. Give workers in the UK the same rights as across Europe.13. Bring back the Cooperative Development Agency to support worker buy-outs from trans-national corporations.

I think this is the only part that I would have to disagree with you for obvious reason, that you have not figured out yet is point 5.

5.Announce a referendum on Britain's continued membership of the EU and NATO.

Both EU and NATO are dangerous, in the context in which they are used (abused) today. NATO is more dangerous since it has been used as an offensive force, or more precisely a tool which is used to project EU's (US) political goals outside EU's sphere of influence. It has also been used by the US to undermine many International institutions, which intern undermines sovereignty of may nations including the members of EU and NATO. NATO outlived it's usefulness back in 1980 when USSR and Warsaw Pact folded. If Europe decided to create a defensive force that could be used to defend Europe then it should be made up of only European countries.

I don't think those would work. They could try running a referendum on PR & hoping the Conservatives are stupid enough to say they would ignore the result. Though Labour did abysmaly at the Euro election the large majority of votes went to parties supporting PR.

Or they could use real liberal policies to end the recession & get into fast growth immediately but that would be too sane.

I too agree with most of your points, especially a new top rate of tax. But I'd never make immigration an issue. I don't think it would be an issue for most people either if it wasn't for the press barons constantly presenting "foreigners" as the human sacrifice that allows their power to carry on unchallenged.

Just as Mohammed Ali said that no Vietcong ever called him "nigger", no working class immigrant ever did me out of a home or a job.

Madam Miaow: Immigration would be an issue, even without the gutter-press and their crypto-racist scaremongering.

Within the EU there are no longer migration controls, and understandably many have taken the opportunity to move from poor countries to richer ones in search of work.

Employers have taken advantage of this source of labour, and for workers in some sectors - particularly those that are casualised or without unionisation - it's led to enmity against migrants amongst settled workers.

Demographic changes in some areas have led to tensions between migrants and settlers because there is increased competition for resources like housing, etc.

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About Me

I am a journalist, writer & broadcaster, based in the U.K. I am a regular pundit on foreign/current affairs on RT , Voice of Russia and the BBC.
I am the author of 'Stranger than Fiction', a new biography of Edgar Wallace, which is available here http://goo.gl/o2cZze
I am a regular contributor to newspapers and magazines in UK & overseas including The Guardian, The Week, Morning Star, Daily & Sunday Express, The Mail on Sunday & The Spectator.
My work has also appeared in The Fleet Street Letter, The Huffington Post, Daily Mail, Daily Telegraph, The Times, The Australian and in publications as diverse as The American Conservative, Pravda, Woman's Weekly & the Racing Post.
I am strongly opposed to the neo-conservative war agenda -and believe in the urgent necessity of a left-right anti-war coalition.
On domestic issues I support re-nationalisation of the railways and public utilities (I am co-founder of The Campaign for Public Ownership), a new top rate of tax on the very wealthy, free care for the elderly, a free National Health Service including the restoration of NHS dentistry, and protection of the Green Belt and the countryside.
FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER @NEILCLARK66